There are now just nine weeks until Christmas (sorry). I wouldn’t normally be bandying the C word about so early, but in this instance, it’s necessary – if you want to make sloe gin, you need to do it now. Sloes (sometimes called Blackthorn berries) are perfect right now, although there’s a school of thought that says they’re better after the first frost and I couldn’t honestly tell you if there’s been a frost yet. I’d say not as it’s been a really mild start to October. No matter, pick them and shove them in the freezer overnight. It does the same thing.

Picked sloes

And then, all you really need is some sort of bottle or jar with a tight fitting lid. You can do it by eye, adding about a third of the bottle of sloes, then another third of caster sugar, then top up with gin, or if you want to be more specific:

200g sloes

200g sugar

300ml gin

You can size these quantities up or down as necessary but stick to roughly these proportions. Pop on the lid and shake well every day for the first week, or until the sugar is completely gone. After that, shake weekly until Christmas. Real sloe gin aficionados will tell you that it’s even better after 12 months, but ours never lasts that long!